


Violet in Tooth and Claw

by duointherain



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24330328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duointherain/pseuds/duointherain
Summary: Wartime, a mission goes sideways. Duo rescues some baby possums. He's not going to be the same after this.  He'll be better, probably. Heero will love him either way.
Relationships: Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

Violet in Tooth and Claw  
by Duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing, or a possum. 

Warning: Violence against a possum. 

Notes: All the usual, 1x2, magic, high tech, that sorta stuff

“They have a cat,” Duo said, a hiss in his tone, nose wrinkling up. He lay on a slight elevation, nestled under some camouflage that had taken the better part of a day to set up. The sniper rifle rested in his hands like he’d known her all his life. Heero hand cleaned and aligned it for him. It was a perfect love letter. 

The two OZ soldiers stood at the back of their jeep, the cat held up by its tail as it hung there lifeless. It was a gray cat with a hairless pink tail. They laughed and swung it around. 

“Okay,” Trowa responded, his voice irritated in Duo’s headset.

“What’s your ETA,” Duo asked, biting down on a bit of grass between his teeth. “I want to go down there and kick their fucking asses. I want to pull their nuts right out their fucking noses.” 

“Ten minutes. It’s a cat, 02. I’ll kill it for them if they give me the location of the prisoners. We’re trying to save human beings.” 

Duo twisted up his face, tongue out, silently mocking Trowa. “I really want to kill them.” 

“Later,” Trowa, promised. 

Rolling his eyes, Duo tuned his listening gear directly at the two targets. 

“I really hate this,” Soldier A complained. “I hate being bait.”

The purr in Duo was deep and silent, a rising of pestilence black fog at the edge of his mind. Parallel thought tracks forked. While still watching the men with the poor animal they had, he also scanned the wooded areas, eyes moving rapidly, looking for any glint, any movement. The men below him kept joking, teasing. They had an ‘L2 cat’. It was ugly. It had disease. 

Shinigami groaned internally. There wasn’t any exciting danger or carnage as far as he was concerned. Duo was safe, hidden very well. Shinigami wasn’t interested. 

Soldier B tossed the L2 cat up in the air and when it landed, he laughingly stamped on its head. 

Duo blinked. 

His finger was already tightening on the trigger, when the glint he had been looking for caught his attention. The sound equipment he wore recalibrated, zoning in on the glint. Human heart beat, check. Calculations went off in his head like sparks, adding, triangulating, taking up more space in his still human and limited bandwidth head. 

It was someone else’s voice that spoke to Trowa next. “Mission abort. At least one sniper. Trap.” 

“Copy,” Trowa said. “Is it resolved, Calibrai?”

“Affirmative,” the voice said. Duo felt his finger start to squeeze. The sound of the human heartbeat stopped almost as fast as the bullet was released. then A and B joined their sniper. “Location clear.” 

When Duo’s eyes opened he was squatting by the L2 cat, petting its very soft fur. “Bastards,” snapped at the dead men. Then the cat’s belly started to move and Duo turned his audio sensors back on. Heartbeats. Two of them. 

“Duo,” Trowa said again, louder. “Come on. I have the information we needed. Leave it.” 

Looking up, violet eyes full of innocence and youth, he shook his head. “There are kittens.” 

Trowa’s face gave away nothing. It never did. Astride his motorcycle, he held out his hand. “We have to go right now.” 

One of the little babies had climbed into Duo’s hand and Duo had no attention for Trowa right then. He helped the other baby out. “I can’t leave them.”

Trowa reached out and grabbed for the back of Duo’s jacket. Duo dodged, skilled and fast. Eyes darker than Duo’s, Shinigami smiled. “We’ll meet you at the safehouse.” 

With a curt nod, Trowa spun his bike around and was gone. The first bullet threw dust up from the ground and Duo ran into the woods, down the hill, staying in the shadows, under the cover of trees. 

Note: The next chapter should be up like really quick.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo draws attention away from Trowa so he can get away with the needed data. There's an epic battle, a parentage reveal, gifts from the gods, but Heero is there to help Duo with his head injury.

Violet in Tooth and Claw 2/?  
by duointherain

disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing

Notes: I think this is going to get weird.. weirder than multiple personalities that don’t always disclose. 

The forest was like some organic junk heap, fallen trees, for all Duo knew there could be meters of falling little pointy leaves. His audio equipment still on, but unfocused, it picked up hundreds of little sounds, birds and scratching. The racing over his own heart didn’t cover up the three strong heartbeats chasing him though. Those behind him, they didn’t cover up the softer sounds of the two kittens’ heartbeats. They were his responsibility now. Holding them close with one arm, he pulled his pistol, silently clicked off the safety, and focused on the men in the second truck. 

“We go after the motorcycle, sergeant. I don’t care about a kid running off into the fucking forest.” Deadmeat C said indignantly. 

“Yes, sir,” the sergeant said. “You hear him! Move! Coms on, move deliberately. These insurgents are not children, no matter what they look like.” 

Duo and Shinigami smiled. Arm out, Calibrai aimed, held steady, while telling Duo about how beautiful kittens are. The bullet entered the lieutenant’s temple and exited like an exploding watermelon. Smart guys should wear helmets and armor when chasing dangerous insurgents. That put the smart one down though and gave Trowa more time and safety to get the data they just stolen back to Heero, who could do something with that shit. 

Running through the moonlit forest, the next step of his ‘plan’ was just to get far enough away that they couldn’t find him. While they were trying though, Trowa was sure to get away. 

The running was the best part, leap, one foot firm on a fallen tree, landing, running, keeping to the shadows. There is something about being young that makes invincibility seem reasonable, no matter how smart or insane a person might be. The stick hit him in the face hard, swallowing him in darkness before he’d hit the ground. 

Light came back like the last coffee in the pot, rocky, bitter, and full of gratitude for anything. His wrists bound behind his back by what felt like a standard zip strip. He couldn’t hear the very low grade hum of his com device, but he could hear Shinigami lusting for their blood. He was on his knees, face on cold wet gravel, by the sound of a creek or some running water something. He had to trust that his babies were okay. He’d had them all of maybe twenty minutes, but his kids had to be resilient. They’d be okay. 

“Look here, you little shit,” the sergeant growled, a hand on the back of Duo’s head, pushing his cheek down the gravel. “I’m going to kill you. How you die is up to you.” 

“Please don’t hurt me,” Duo begged, intentionally letting his voice sound young, scared, a younger version of himself. “I didn’t do anything! Please let me go! I won’t tell anyone.” 

“You know we found three guns, four knives and some dead possums on you, boy.” 

“Dead?” Duo choked up. “My babies are dead?”

“We did kick you a few times,” Deadmeat C said. “He’s a kid, Jeffers. Let him up. We need to know where you got the weapons, kid and who shot the lieutenant.” 

“I found’em,” Duo said, genuinely crying. Everything he touched turned to death. It didn’t matter how much he wanted to help. The edges of his normal selves frayed at the edges, the acid of grief and rage eating away at the essence of who he was. “I just wanted to help them!” 

“Get off him,” C demanded, as he reached down and grabbed the back of Duo’s dark hoodie. “Look kid, show us where you found the weapons. Maybe we can find some clues to the attacker. You want to help us, don’t you?”

Duo nodded, tears still rolling down his face. Of course, help is a very flexible verb. “You guys got attacked? It wasn’t fireworks?” Questions are not lies. Other people’s assumptions were not his responsibility. 

“He’s lying,” the sergeant growled. 

DM D huffed. “He’s just a fucking child. How old are you? 12? Fuck. He couldn’t have gotten off a shot like that if he’d wanted to.” 

“Yeah?” Holding up Duo’s com gear, the sergeant looked at the other two like they were idiots. “Then where did he get this? What do you want to bet it’s gentrig to him. He might not be the shooter, but he’s not some innocent bystander either.”

“Where’d you get the comm gear, kid,” D asked, giving him a big brother scolding look. 

His ribs hurt though and he expected they’d all had a stomp on him. “It’s cool stuff, can I keep it please? I wanna show my buddy.” 

“No, you can’t keep illegal technology, idiot. Are you trying to get killed? If you think we’re assholes, you should meet the people that own this shit.” 

“They’d be scary,” Duo said, letting his eyes go wide and innocent as he fiddled with the zip tie on his wrists. One. Thin. Already really tight. “Can you untie me please? I’m scared.” 

“No, we can’t fucking untie you. At the very least, you’re getting arrested. You try anything and I’ll shoot you dead. I don’t give a shit if you’re a kid or if you’re innocent. Understand?” Sergeant poked a pistol in Duo’s direction. 

“Yeah,” Duo said, feeling very far away. Shinigami kept Duo’s smile, wearing it like a stolen sweater. There were few things better than shooting someone with their own weapon. “I’ll show you!” He started to move forward. “Come on. I think it’s this way.” 

“You better know. We got three dead men, all good men!” 

“Oh gosh,” Duo said, ‘tripping’ just a little, bound wrists rising up behind him and then hard down against his back as he pulled hard. The pain pushed Shinigami into the driver’s seat. Battle played out in milliseconds. Shinigami ducked under the pistol, grabbed it with both hands, twisting the bigger man’s hand so hard there was a snap. 

Pistol in hand, he flicked off the safety and dropped the other two men, red dots on their foreheads. He spun, meaning to pistol whip the man behind him, but the movement moved out of his control. The man had a handful of his hair and with all his strength, he smacked Duo’s face into a pine tree, once, twice. Duo wasn’t sure which of them screamed. When he was jerked back for a third impact, he ran up the tree, pushing back with his shoulders. 

They spun back from the tree, but the guy still had a hand full of his hair and out massed him by a lot. His feet barely brushed against the gravel as the man carried him out into the middle of the creek and forced his head into the water. Duo held his breath, hands clawing at the man’s hand, his legs. Everyone in him was sure if he went into the darkness this time, it would be the last time. Heero. He’d miss Heero. Stupid beautiful blue eyes. He wasn’t actually sure his kittens were dead either and if they were, it was this asshole’s fault! 

Suddenly calm, his hand found a fist sized rock on the creek bed. He let himself go completely limp, calm, hearing Wufei’s words in his mind. Meditation is good for you. The edge of darkness promised him better things though, promised him Sister Helen, peace, home, everything he’d ever wanted. It would only be a matter of time until Heero got there too. 

At the very edge of darkness, the guy pulled him up. Duo’s fist tightened on the rock and he rose, striking up at the man’s chin, driving him back, breaking bone. For a moment, the man staggered back, his good hand holding his sagging jaw, utter shock on his face as he stared at the wet, long haired little demon. 

Shinigami and Duo nearly bounced that rock in their hand, feeling chill dark water running down their face as moonlight glinted a halo over wet hair. He ran at the man. 

The man pulled another pistol, fired before Duo could get there, hitting him in the belly. Duo came to a halting stop, dropped the rock. 

He knew the look in the man’s eyes. He’d seen it so many times in his life and it made him grin wildly. “I’m God of Death,” Duo/Shinigami purred. He bled. He could feel the warmth of blood seeping into his wet hoodie, but already dark and wet on top of it, it might not have shown. Feeling a rush of power, he took a step forward, and growled, mouth wide, teeth showing. 

Shook, the man stepped farther back, pistol lowering slightly. 

Duo lunged, hand grabbing the pistol from the now completely spooked man. While he didn’t get it free, he moved it up towards the broken jaw and compressed the trigger. The moment when life leaves, it’s like a human is a spent balloon, stretched and wrinkled and good for nothing anymore. 

Hitting the ground wasn’t too bad, as he had a corpse to break the fall. He rolled off and almost immediately understood he wasn’t getting back up. To be a father and dead all in one night, that was shitty. 

When he saw the light above him, he snickered. “No, don’t go into the light, Duo!” He said, coughing up blood as a gift from talking. He turned his head so he coudl spit blood out and saw the pile of his things. There was a skinny little pink tail sticking out. His kittens! 

Rich fuckers had cats. He was going to have cats before he died. It was maybe better to have dead kittens. That’s what the god of death would have. 

Pain is polite, most of the time. It doesn’t come around in the middle of a fight, but it collects with interest afterwards. Every inch of the crawl made him consider his life choices. They smelled awful too. By the time he was less than a meter away, the stink of neglected death had him wondering if you could puke after being gut shot. Dumb ass. Heero was going to give him such shit about this. Just stand up there like a perfect target and let the asshole shoot you. For them to smell that bad, though it had to have been days.... 

He got to them and pulled both out of them the pile. They were so very soft. “I love you guys,” he told them. “You’re the best companion animals I’ve ever had. Quatre said everyone should have a companion animal.” 

The light overwhelmed him then, so golden and pure. He blocked his eyes with an arm, squinting up, half expecting, half hoping it would be Sister Helen come for him. It wasn’t. 

He squinted, his eyes adjusting to the bright light. 

It was a man. Not as pretty as Heero, but really fine. He wore a golden gown, maybe made of starlight. The scythe he carried was made of some polished white oak, with a silver golden blade. “Are you ready?”  
Now that was super creepy. The other three guys he’d been fighting with were all like sitting up and climbing out of their bodies. 

Duo shook his head quickly. “No thanks. I’m not dying.” 

“Really,” Death said gently. “I’m not sure that’s really an option at this point.” 

“I’m the God of Death,” Duo said with a great certainty that only a child could really muster.

“Is that so,” Death said, leaning against his scythe. “And how do you think you’re going to get past loosing so much blood?”

“I don’t know,” Duo admitted, looking down at his belly. “It’s a problem.” 

“Indeed.” Death squatted down, smiling gently. “I don’t make the rules. I’m just here to help out.” 

“Who makes the rules?”

“No one, really. They just are, but Hades, Zeus, Persephone, they all get a say, I suppose.”

“Well, those guys are all real dead. Why am I different?”

“I don’t know.” 

A thick staff smacked against the creek’s gravel. A woman, middle-aged and cranky rose the rest of the way up out of the water. “He’s mine, Thanos. Hades took my daughter and I have taken his son.” 

“Oh,” Thanatos said, bowing slightly as he stepped away. 

Duo scooted a bit, leaning against a tree, his two stiff kittens in his lap. 

Another woman appeared, a swirl of green, blue, and sunlight. It was in that moment that Duo knew for utter sure that he was homosexual, not pansexual, because he was utterly sure he’d never seen nor would he ever see a more beautiful person in all of the Earthsphere. “Mother! What have you done?”

“Nothing that need concern you,” Demeter snapped. “You take care of the underworld. I’ll take care of this world.” 

The beautiful woman made of springtime knelt down by him, one lovely sunlight hand reaching out to touch his face. “Hello, my son. You look like your father.”

“Uh,” Duo said, staring up at her. “I’m Duo.” 

“I’m Persephone. Are you in pain?”

“Uh, eh, just the normal.” 

“You talk like him too. I am so sorry that life has given you that experience. We’ll make it up to you.” She passed her glowing hand over his belly. “Better?”

“Uh,” Duo said, nodding, then lifting his kittens to her. “Please! Can you help them too? I want to protect them!” 

“You have so much love in you. These little possums are fine. They’re just frightened and a little young.” As she petted them, them came back to life, but bigger, just big enough to be something Duo could care for. “Your grandmother is a little gruff, but she means well.” 

“Uh, what are you?”

“I am the goddess of spring, and your mother. You deserve gifts.”

“Uh,” Duo said again, feeling like the stupidest guy. “Fixing my gut was a pretty good gift. My kittens aren’t dead either. That’s more than I expected, really.” 

“Thanatos. Give my son a gift.” She smiled, sweet and utterly lovely, and at the same time the Queen of the underworld. 

“Yes, of course,” the golden man said, bowing to Duo. “I give to him the power to see and speak to the recent dead, a gift fitting for a child of the underworld.” 

“Mother,” Persephone said, less spring and more Hell. “Gift, to my son.” 

“Saving the world isn’t enough of a gift? He will be a legendary hero, Heracles reborn.” 

“A gift other than doing your bidding, Mother.”

“Of course then,” she said, a smile that promised Hell wasn’t only the Underworld. “I give to him his heart’s desire. The possums are his adopted children so he shall be one of them, when he so needs, when the moon is full. The violence of a man, the utility of something better.” She held up her hand and blew glitter at him.

“Hey! Do I get a choice in this?”

“I am satisfied,” Persephone. “Dionysus, I will see you again, my son.” 

And with that they were all gone and Heero knelt in front of him, wrapping a bandage around his head. “Don’t move. It’s me. I don’t know how bad your head is injured.” 

“My mother is a goddess,” Duo said, both hands in the hoodie pocket, his babies sleeping in his hands. 

“Hn,” Heero said. “I’m going to give you pain killer. When you wake, we’ll be at the safe house.” 

“Don’t lose my kittens,” Duo demanded as the painkiller put him back in the black, safe though in Heero’s care. “I love my kittens.” 

“Copy that,” Heero said, unsure what Duo was talking about, but committed nonetheless.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heero stresses about Duo taking that mission, confused by his feelings.

Violet in Tooth and Claw 3/?  
by duointherain

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. Someday maybe a possum will live with me. 

Notes: Heero POV

Before the Mission....

Hearts are stupid. Hearts are confusing. 

Heero had not wanted Duo to take the sniper position in the mission. Sitting on his sleeping bag, laptop resting on a suspect pillow sitting between his outstretched legs, he tried to unpack that feeling. He’d felt a rage at the idea that he’d carefully kept far away from his face. The rage had been completely disproportionate. For a good thirty seconds he had a gravesite picked out for Trowa. It didn’t make any sense. Killing Trowa did not advance peace or their goals and the voice under the almost polite surface of his mind kept whispering that he was endangering Duo. 

Duo was a competent asset and nothing more. That same terribly impolite voice hissed, “Liar.” 

So they’d planned. The objective was to find some villagers who had been rounded up by OZ and rescue them. Through expert and quite devious hacking, Heero had found the data, which was still encrypted, and managed to move a copy to the personal device of one of the rank and file. He then created a false order for the target to go to a location where the data would be retrievable. It was a brilliant plan. He was quite proud of it, until in their planning the retrieval team turned out to be Duo and Trowa. 

Heero had spent the rest of the night cleaning, calibrating the sniper rifle assigned to Duo. He knew Duo’s measurements and preferences as well as he knew his own. He laid out Duo’s gear, counting Duo’s willingness to tolerate his access as a sign of a word that he wasn’t going to think. He was right at the edge of his boundaries and he did not want a refocusing session. 

Duo was corrupting him, but he was going to do everything he could to keep that to himself. 

Some feelings are so pleasant, so precious that they are worth having, even if you can’t keep them. Watching Duo sleep on the couch, beat up and highly questionable as it was, Heero thought he was the definition of beauty. Those thoughts would definitely get him a very unpleasant refocus session. 

He made breakfast for both Trowa and Duo, set the coffee pot to begin at the right time. ‘We who are about to die, salute you,’ he thought, followed much more quietly by, ‘The dead do not love.’

<><>

After the Mission

“Heero,” Quatre said firmly. “You are giving me a headache.” 

Heero glared at the blond, grunted at him. There was something strange about the blond. He knew things he wasn’t supposed to. He wanted to say something, but there was just enough about Quatre to seem like he’d be a really good interrogator that kept Heero’s mouth shut. He sat down on his sleeping bag, pulled out his computer and stared at the screen, or rather the clock on the screen. 

They were late. 

Heero closed his eyes, which did not help him stop thinking about all the bad things that can happen to a human body. 

Trowa is too quiet when he goes places. Heero almost didn’t hear him when he came back through the door and having the data stick tossed his way caught him off guard. He did his very best not to smile, though the already closed door didn’t reply. 

On his feet, Heero licked his lips. “Where is he?” 

“Delayed.” Trowa hung up his coat. 

“I saved you food,” Quatre said cheerfully, blue eyes sparkling. “I’m sure Duo is fine. He’s very competent.” 

“I wasn’t saying he wasn’t,” Heero snapped, but then more accusatory, he snarled, “You left him.” 

“Rescuing these civilians was his pet project. I helped. I tried to get him to come with me. In the end, a second group of hostiles arrived and he made a tactical decision to distract them so I could complete the mission. So he is delayed. He is excellent at stealth.” 

Murder. Murder them all. 

“Hn,” Heero agreed as he opened the hidden weapons cache and retrieved his own pistol. 

“You will likely put him at greater risk,” Trowa advised, eating the bowl of stew that Quatre had brought him. “Further, you are the only one that can decrypt the data. If both of you die, it hinders our cause.” 

“Hn. He could be caught, interrogated. I can do what you can’t.” Heero buckled his holster on.

“Go find him and fuck him,” Trowa snarled. “Maybe then you can get your head back in the game.”

“It’s not a game,” Heero said, deadpan, blue eyes murderous. He put on his coat and left. 

<><>

Closer to dawn, he carried Duo back into the safe house. As gentle as he could, he stripped him out of the wet clothes, looked over him for injuries. Whatever the little furry animals were, they seemed to like Duo a very great deal, so Heero felt they were okay. He tucked Duo into his sleeping bag, then laid down next to him. 

“We’re going to save those people, Duo. I’ll save the whole world for you.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now what do possums do when they get scared? Demeter might be the asshole in this, at least for the moment.

Violet in Tooth and Claw 4/?  
by duointherain

disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing, or Emily Dickinson’s poems. 

Duo had hangovers. He wasn’t familiar with the word alcoholic at this point in his life, but if he had he might have made a stupid joke about how Earth made a joke word just for him. At all of fifteen, maybe, because who exactly knew for sure. The one good thing about headaches though, hangover or head injury, was that you had to be alive to be in pain. 

Duo fucking loved pain in that moment, to the point of almost having a hardon because of it. That weird ass fucking hallucination of weird supernatural creatures had just been a bad dream. He’d lost that fucking fight. Then he remembered that he’d been shot. He groaned, which hurt like hell and he moaned in protest. Maybe being alive wasn’t actually worth it after all. 

Fuck.

He’d done his part. Could he just die in peace? 

Then there were blue eyes. Just the memory of blue eyes, but still, god, so fucking beautiful, and those shoulders, strong and hard, pushing into his stomach as he was carried. Heero had come for him. The sleeping bag around him felt warm and silky. It was the sleeping back Heero had had. 

Now while he hadn’t had much for formal education and there were more words he didn’t know than he did, he had read a few smutty romance novels, which had given him what he thought was a very adult and extensive understanding of human sexuality. In his headache fogged mind, Heero wore black pants, tight as his spandex, but longer, with a white flouncy shirt, enough material in the sleeves to make a couple of knapsacks, his hair longer, done into a ponytail, his cock hard and bulging bigger than life in those tight pants. 

Instinct drew his hand to his own version of larger than life. In the half-dream, half fantasy, Heero pulled him close, one arm behind his back, lifting him up lovingly off his feet, to lean close and confess undying love. The wars were over, Heero was to be the new Duke, and his entire heart could not rest unless Duo would admit undying love in return. 

“I love you, Heero, my king, my heart, I have always dreamed of being in your arms,” Duo whispered, hand slowly stroking. 

“That’s nice,” Heero said, an actual nondream arm under Duo’s bruised back. “For now, can you please stop masturbating and drink this medicine? It’s pain killer and antibiotic.”

Duo’s eyes snapped wide open, violet eyes wider than the list of all the words he didn’t know. Heero held him close, lifting him up so he could drink with less chance of choking. Duo’s cock turned to a block of ice, never to be heard from again. Heero Yuy was going to murder him now. That’s how that goes. He didn’t have enough brain cells left to reason out that Heero had risked his life to save him and was giving him medicine from Heero’s own supply. The ice traveled through his body, up through his veins like a rapidly spreading crack in his soul. He lost feeling in his legs. The numbness crept up his body, a tsunami of death moving faster than thought. his hands went limp. The words he wanted to say, to beg for forgiveness, to tell Heero it wasn’t his fault, to tell him that the only reason for living was to see those slight little smiles, none of that made it out his mouth as his head dropped back, eyes open, and what felt like his last breath passed warmly over cold lips. 

Heero screamed. Like not a little meep, but an actual shrill poetry of terror and horror. He didn’t spill the medicinal cocktail he’d made for Duo as he jumped back a good ten feet, before he started praying in Japanese. 

Duo lay there, eyes open, glazing over, as he watched the whole thing. 

The rest of them ran in, which immediately got Quatre pinching his nose and grumbling in Arabic. Trowa, ever the skeptic came closer, scowling like looking at Duo was the most difficult thing he’d ever done and not because he hadn’t seen death, but just some instinctive reaction to the smell. “He’s dead...How has he been dead for a week in the summer sun?”

Heero’s hand fluttered and he passed the medicine off to Quatre before pacing, both hands fluttering. “He was alive when I found him! He was live just a moment ago! Fuck he was masturbating! He was alive. He said he loved me!”

If death could hurry up and shut off his mind, Duo wished, now would be the time. That everyone knew about him masturbating was way worse than death. 

“Heero,” Quatre soothed. “Are you sure? I know you ... had feelings for him.. I know. I know these things.

‘Well that was good to know,’ Duo thought. Heero had feelings for him. Noted. 

Wufei, holding his sleeve over his face to block the smell. “He smells much worse than normal. Heero maybe he was... just limper? Maybe they used some rapid decomposition chemical on him?” 

Trowa nodded. “That makes sense. We should try to get some of that. It could be really helpful.” 

“Indeed,” Wufei agreed. “Maybe we won’t have to bury him.” 

“Bones,” Trowa said. 

“Right,” Wufei allowed.

“He’s not dead,” Heero shouted, hands now fists. “I don’t know what happened! But he was alive like three minutes ago! He’s not dead!” 

“You really do have feelings for him,” Wufei said, nose wrinkling. “Weak.” 

“Now, now,” Quatre said, drawing everyone back together, as he moved closer to Duo, a step at a time, like his braided friend might explode. 

If Duo could have exploded and covered Trowa and Wufei in entrails, he would have at that moment. If he could have smiled at that thought, he would have done that too.

“I think Heero’s right. He’s not... dead.” 

“That might be less fortunate,” Wufei said, some actual concern on his face. “Is he in pain?”

Grimacing, Quatre reached out and touched Duo’s cold face. “Not physically,” but then that angelic face tightened up in pain, “but there is darkness, rage, embarrassment. Duo, we love you. Just know that.”

“Speak for yourself,” Wufei snapped, but the look of concern hadn’t left his face. “If this is a new bioweapon that Oz deployed, we shouldn’t touch him or be near him. We should burn him.” 

Trowa reached over and moved Quatre’s hand from Duo’s face, as if he might be contagious, because at that point, they really didn’t know. 

Duo wanted to spit at them, in just a fit of impotent rage. They could all look and smell like corpses! They could be the corpse corps. ‘Fuckers!’

“Get out,” Heero said firmly. 

“Heero?” Quatre said, but Heero was moving them hands on their backs, herding them to the door. “We should deal with this together.”

“No. Out.” Heero said firmly. 

As soon as they were out, Heero pulled an abandoned dresser in front of the door. Then he just stood there, arms crossed and huffed at Duo, blue eyes narrowed accusingly. 

Duo said, ‘Hey, Heero.’ in his mind, his whole body just laying there like he was dead. It gave new meaning to dead righteous. 

Heero rummaged in his bag and pulled out a beat-up hardback book. Which he then sat down by where Duo lay on the floor and opened it up. “I’m going to read you poetry,” Heero pronounced. 

‘Yeah, okay, Heero. I’m not sure now’s the time. Maybe, you know, tell me you like me and I don’t stink. That’s kind of an issue for me, ya know? No, I guess ya don’t know. I ain’t never told you shit, did I?’ Of course, he could talk forever now and no one would ever complain. Great. Not how that ought to go. 

And so Heero read Emily Dickinson to Duo’s apparent corpse.

“Success is counted sweetest  
By those who ne'er succeed.  
To comprehend a nectar  
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the Purple Host  
Who took the Flag today  
Can tell the definition  
So clear of Victory

As he defeated – dying –   
On whose forbidden ear  
The distant strains of triumph  
Burst agonized and clear.”

‘Well, shit,’ Duo thought, ‘now I love him even more.’

<><>

Outside their safe house cabin in the woods, a small drone slowly hovered around Trowa’s tarp covered motorbike. 

In a distant headquarters, a young drone pilot grinned. She raised her hand. “Commander Zechs! I found them!”

The young blond commander smiled, a hungry predatory smile. “Excellent work.


	5. Don't waste food...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo meets more of his family. The other boys get put in front of a firing squad. Quatre might be in shock.

Violet in Tooth and Claw 5/?  
by duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing, Kronos and his husband are mine. They are characters from my story The Moon’s Permission. 

One moment, Heero was reading him poetry, probably a dream, but a really nice dream. When he sat there playing with his kittens, petting them and sharing his food with them, that was definitely a dream. They were the cutest kittens he could imagine and the first kittens he’d ever seen in person. 

The dream seemed to last forever and he considered that he might actually be dead. That thought made him angry. If he was dead, then his kittens were too. That’s just wrong! They were so cute though, so little with dark eyes and round little ears. They must have been twins, not just sibs, because they both had the same creamy colored fur with matching stripes from between their eyes back. People who attacked kittens were the worst kind of people and he was going to find a way to haunt them! Well, except that he’d killed them, so maybe he’d haunt their families until all of them became better people. 

“That won’t be necessary,” a bored, strangely accented voice said. “You’re really not dying. I don’t think you can die.” 

Duo’s eyes snapped open, to find two men leaning over him. One appeared like a gentle man, a slightly chubby red headed Mr. Rodgers. This guy smiled sweetly. When he spoke, he sounded like an old black and white movie. This was Hell. “Now see here, I’m a physician and I am here to help you, my son.”

The other guy looked like the kinda guy that sold questionable scrap claims. Bleach blond curls lay around his face and Duo didn’t even want to think about what kind of work made those curls useful. He had blue eyes that were paler than Heero’s and amused, relaxed, that only pushed Duo towards thinking the guy was a sex worker. 

Blondie wrinkled his nose. “That’s not far off, really. Nothing wrong with sex work.”

Nonsense off Season Santa said. “Gael, stop reading his thoughts. He’s not a threat. He’s just a child. We’re here to help you, my dear.”

Gael snorted, a finger rubbing behind the back of one year as the snort turned into a laugh. “Jackie, my love, I don’t know that I’ve had a descendant more dangerous than this one. He’s a stone cold killer. Don’t get too close, he’ll bite you.” 

“Don’t listen to him, my dear,” Jackie said sweetly. “This must have been a very difficult day for you. We’re so very glad to have found you.” 

Dead or not, that was his life. Duo finally found the ability to move and was up, trapped still in the sleeping bag Heero had put him in, one hand looking for his missing pistol, which was probably also Heero’s fucking fault. An arm around his belly, protectively over his kittens, he literally hopped himself across the room. 

“Told you,” Gael said, manifesting a cigar from out of nowhere. Cigar between his teeth, he smirked at Duo.

That cigar looked like the best thing the world had to offer in the moment. “Give me some, if you’re really friendly,” Duo demanded, stepping out of the sleeping bag, arm around his belly still. He was finding everything uncomfortable in that moment. The pity on Santa’s face and the way his pants clung to his ass, the smell in the room, none of it was his idea of not Hell and was considering the odds of just jumping on blondie and taking that cigar. 

“No, no,” Santa said, “Tobacco is not for children! Now, we need to get you somewhere safe and cleaned up. I can’t undo what Lady Demeter did, but we will provide you with every support.” The man really did look like he’d fallen out of an old ass pre-colony movie, a black leather satchel held with both hands. 

Duo’s eyes shifted around, looking for any sign of Heero. They had been here. 

“Your friends were taken away by your enemies,” Gael said, tossing a cigar in Duo’s direction, shortly followed by a lighter. “Be good to that lighter. I had Hephaestus make it just for you.” 

Duo barely hear anything blondie said, but that the lighter flared up green like his scythe made him happy and got blondie some points. Duo drew hard on the cigar, then his eyes went wide. “Where’d’ya get this?”

“It might be a little strong then you’re used to,” Gael said with a smirk, before moving close to Santa, giving him an apologetic peck on the check. “Don’t worry. You can call me Gael. I’m technically your grandfather, but no one calls me that. Formally, I am Kronos, god of time, father of the titans, and many of the gods, don’t ask me about it. I don’t remember. So I will get you to your friends on time. This gentleman his my husband, Dr. Walker. He would very much like to give you a medical examination.”

“Fuck off,” Duo said, enjoying the near high of the huge strange cigar. “I don’t need a doctor.” 

“But my dear,” Dr. Walker said, “You were shot so recently and have been so many tribulations! I mean only to do you well.”

“I don’t believe in no gods and I don’t care if you his pimp neither.”

“My goodness,” Dr. Walker said, “I would never! How on Earth! Sweet Jesus bless you, son.”

Duo sneered, hiccuped, eyes widening as his vision shifted and the cigar didn’t fit right in his mouth anymore. He grabbed the cigar out of his mouth, the other hand feeling his elongated, fuzzy nose. It made him hiccup again and he reached for his braid, just to make sure it was there. It wasn’t. This led to a rather circular search, which was only punctuated by huge long feet and claws scratching at the floor that made turn this-way-and-that-to find out where the sound was coming from. 

“I’m thinking head injury,” Dr. Walker said with a sigh. 

“Shifting forms is very disorienting. He’s fine. Please, let us alone for a bit, but send Euphrosyne to visit in a quarter of an hour, if you would, Jackie.” 

“Certainly, my love, but you will try to bring him home soon, yes?”

Gael leaned into Jack, kissed him tenderly, a familiar kiss that caught Duo’s attention, big violet eyes watching under huge round possum ears. Then just like that, Dr. Walker was gone. Not just visually, but the scent of him was gone too. Duo got his feet under him and made his way over, long possum face sniffing at the air. “What the hell?”

With a motion of his hand, both he and Duo were somewhere else, a place with thick moist air and unfamiliar music that seemed to echo through the chamber. Gael sat in a huge stone chair, a lithe dog headed man sitting on the arm of the chair, in a familiar and rather intimate fashion. “Anubis, This is my grandson,” Gael said with a wink, “He needs a bath.”

“Indeed,” the dog-faced man said. With a flick of his fingers, half a dozen very pretty Egyptian young men, just a bit older than Duo carried a protesting Duo off into the warm olympic sized pool. A small cadre of beautiful women followed, carrying amphora of scented oil. Duo sputtered, trying to walk his way back out of the pool, but the bathers expertly carried him deeper into the water. 

“Feisty,” Anubis said, “Feral.”

“Yeah,” Gael agreed. “He’s got a lot of potential. Here he comes.”

Duo broke free from the very confused bathing servants. A baby possum in either hand, his clothes magically gone, he tried to make it to the edge. His mouth was back to being his normal and was currently shouting obscenities that neither Gael nor Anubis knew the meaning to. 

“Demeter is cruel. Possums. Really,” Anubis said with a time worn sigh. 

“Eh,” Gael said, shrugging, his cigar appearing back in his hand until Anubis smoked it back into non-existence with a flick of his wrist. “It suits him, I think.”

“But the smell....” Anubis shuddered. “I intend for that to be my gift.” 

“I expected no less,” Gael smiled up at him. While they watched, Duo went under the water, treating the water as if it were zero G and trying to get out of the circle of servants. “I like him. Give me back my cigar.”

“Not in the bathhouse. Boy! Don’t hit my staff!” Anubis shouted. “Let him go!” 

The staff bowed and spread aside, making an almost honor guard. Babies above his head, hair unbraided and floating on the oiled water behind him, he stomped out of the pool. “They don’t assault me! I don’t assault them!” 

“Bathing is not an assault,” Anubis said dryly. 

“I’m naked,” Duo screamed, cradling his babies against his chest, his unbraided hair pooling in a soggy mass at his skinny ankles. “They almost drowned my kittens!”

“Oh my goodness,” a feminine voice as the goddess Bastet appeared in a long black velvet gown. A black lay against her chest, supported by one arm. “This is the boy, the cat boy, “Oh, by the way, Galen, Euphrosyne will not be joining us. I will provide joy and comfort to the cat boy.”

“Hey, Bastet, please let me introduce my grandson, Dionysus,” Gael said proudly.

Duo didn’t actually care that he was naked. Clothes were Earth bullshit. He stomped his foot and howled, “My name is Duo Maxwell, I run and hide by I’ll never tell a lie.” 

“He’s also quite the thief,” Gael beamed. 

“But where are the cats,” Bastet said, slowly circling around him, silent as if she walked on cat paws. Her dark eyes looked suspiciously at his possums.

“Are you makin’ fun’o mah babies,” Duo growled, planting his feet and glaring. 

She laughed delightedly. “Do you see my darling January here? This is a cat. I am a cat. Your familiars are possums.” 

“I don’t care,” Duo said, snuggling them. “I love them.” 

“As well you should,” she said with a smile, reaching out to pet them as well. 

He smiled a bit, held them a little less protectively. “They like you,” Duo said begrudgingly.

“I am the goddess of cats, of home, of health, the moon, and I am your aunt, in a fashion. I am so sorry your birth gift is late, Duo Maxwell.”

“I don’t need nothing, but maybe some clothes.” 

“That’s easy enough,” she said, and with a motion of her hand and a subtle purring sound, he had his normal clothing back, clean, well sized, mended as if he’d never torn them ever. His boots were not slightly too large anymore, and his shirt had a pocket for his possums. 

“Oh! Cool! Thanks,” Duo said, stretching a bit so he could test them out. His hair was now braided properly, with bits of sweet smelling herbs braided in. “Oh hey, this is nice!”

“Finally something makes you happy,” Gael teased. 

“Where’s my cigar,” Duo complained as he let his possums crawl into their new pocket. 

“I’ll send you a box of them,” Gael said, standing up finally. “But first, let us go visit your friends in the nick of time. Come with me.” 

Gael walked into the darkness of the hallway. 

Duo hesitated just long enough to reach out to touch January, to touch a real cat, before running after the mouthy blond man. “Where are they? Do you have any guns? I need guns.” 

“You don’t,” Gael said. “Guns run out of ammunition. It’s very annoying.”

Duo rolled his eyes as he followed along after the taller, older man. “Oh yeah, I’ll just talk the bastards to death like you do.”

“You are really going to want to get with your Japanese boy and learn some manners before you come home for dinner.” 

“Fuck you,” Duo spat, coming to stop a blank white wall of energy. “Ain’t never comin to yer place and Heero’s got shit manners anyway.”

Gael cleared his throat. “What does that say about your manners? Now, take out that lighter I gave you, if you will.” 

“It was in my pocket,” Duo said, sadly, looking back over his shoulder. 

“It is now in your pocket. It will always be in your pocket when you look for it. Now, I would like you to have it in your hand when I open the portal. You are likely to be distressed, when I do so, but I will hold time for several seconds for you, giving you a head start. As soon as this opens, I want you to think about being bigger, about what you need to do to save your friends.” 

“Shit,” Duo whispered, working out very quickly this friends, his only real family, such as they were, were in deep shit and it was all on him to fix it. Having time to think about that before having to do something was never a good thing. 

“You are my blood,” Gael said proudly. “Don’t tell Jack about these things. He’s still very much a Baptist and a pacifist. I look forward to getting to know you more, Duo Maxwell.” 

Duo didn’t have much time to think about that because the wall of energy disappeared and he ran. Trowa, Heero, Quatre, and Wufei were bound to trees, bloody and not completely conscious. A firing squad stood opposite of them, pistols raised. The whole scene was frozen like a bad postcard. 

Lighter in hand, he let instincts he didn’t recognize swallow him. In the seconds of stilled time, he swiped a huge clawed hand down the firing squad, collecting guns and fired bullets like tossing pebbles. 

Time resumed and the sound of gunfire happened in disconnected time from where the pistols were all now swatted into the trunk of another tree. The strength in his body wasn’t that different from the strength in a gundam. The claws that his fingers ended in were his very own and opened the skulls of the people on that firing line like crunching lollipops with a spanner. He growled at the commanders back at the jeep. The growl was the best feeling he’d ever had, right up until the moment the guy from the firing squad that he hadn’t killed shot him in the side. Getting shot hurt, no matter what form you were in and before he’d thought about, he closed his long, very tooth muzzle over the guy’s head and cracked that lollipop. 

Quatre squealed, hands over his face, as he screamed, “Duo! No!” 

His babies had run to his friends and freed them. Now they all stood there staring. Well, Trowa was kind of holding a stunned and staring Wufei on his feet. 

Duo swallowed, chewed a bit, swallowed a bit more. “Hey, Q.” Duo swallowed the last bit of the lollipop. “Sorry I’m late.” When he thought about it, the lighter was back in his hand and he wished to be his normal self, and suddenly he was, though had to spit out a tooth that wasn’t his. “We should probably go.”

Heero was by his side then, pressing a hand to where Duo had been shot, only to pull his hand back and find no blood. “Hn. We should go.” 

“Duo just bit a man’s head off,” Quatre nearly screamed. 

An injured Wufei shrugged. “To be fair, he’s always been kind of like that.”

“He spit out a tooth!” Quatre said, following the others into the forest. 

Heero let Duo carry some of his weight. “Sorry to waste food, Q. I’ll try to be more careful next time.”

What followed was in a language Duo didn’t know, but Heero’s arm was over his shoulder and their bodies right next to each other. His hair was clean and soft, and Q could piss all he wanted, he could smell that Heero liked him, like, liked liked him. Nothing else mattered in that moment.


	6. some gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heero is hurt worse than anyone would like

Violet in Tooth and Claw 6/?  
by Duointherain

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing. The gods are responsible for themselves. The Moon’s Permission belongs to me. 

Note: This chapter might be small. I’m just trying to write my way out of this panic attack. 

Heero liked this part of being injured, where everything felt unreal and nothing mattered. Duo lowered him gently to the bench by the picnic table they’d found. Trowa and Quatre were setting up a perimeter, looking for resources. Wufei had gone to take a piss for all Duo cared, in that moment. Heero smiled up at Duo, a silly adoring smile. All Heero felt was Duo’s hand on his side, pressing against a gunshot wound that Heero didn’t think was going to care one way or the other. “Your hair is beautiful.”

“Uh,” Duo said, a knee on the bench, Heero tucked close as he tried to tell himself the bleeding was going to stop. “Thanks.”

“You know, like before, yeah, before, I used to look at other guys and, that would be what I was thinking about, like in the morning,” Heero said, dreamily, a bloody hand reaching out to touch Duo’s braid, “you know?”

“Uh, eh, um, so,what do you think about now,” Duo said, slipping a finger then two into the hole in Heero’s shirt, to see if he could get information that would help him with a plan he didn’t really have the knowledge to formulate. 

“Nothing,” Heero said sadly, “That all went away. Now all I think about is my mission and my orders.”

“Fuckers,” Duo cursed, “I’m going to pull their nuts out their noses.” 

Heero went slack against Duo, giggling. “You said nuts.” 

“I’ll do something else to your nuts after you get better, Heero. That’ll fix those mornings.” Standing there in the dark, Duo held Heero tighter as Heero’s hand went limp, dropping his braid. “You hear that, ‘Ro? I said nuts again. How about cock? I’ll show you something to do with that too. Aren’t you gonna laugh at that? Cock! Dick! Pearl shooter!”

Heero wasn’t laughing anymore. 

Light blinded Duo suddenly and he first blocked the light with an arm, then reached for his pistol that wasn’t there. Almost as fast, the lighter was in his hand. 

“Oh please don’t,” a woman said, voice that sounded like Glinda had had just enough rum to make everything just fine.   
Duo’s eyes adjusted to the light around her. She wore a wedding dress, but hadn’t done her hair yet with was about as long as his, but fuller, a slightly redder color, and shinier. “Who are you?

“I am Panakeia,” she said with a smile. “My gift is late, Dionysus.” 

“My name is Duo Maxwell,” Duo snapped. 

“Yes, of course, my cousin,” she agreed amicably. “I think I should give my gift very quickly or you’ll be visiting your friend in Hades’ garden.” 

Refusing to wipe his nose or eyes, Duo sucked everything back in. “Please help him. I’ll owe you.”

“Another time,” she said, pulling a small potion bottle from the bag hanging from her waist, “I fear we are past time for drinking, so I will have to add a bit extra to it.” The small bottle resting in the palm of her hand turned to glitter and swarmed around Heero, in his nose, into his eyes, glittery tornados at his ears. 

Duo held onto him. He wasn’t going to have Heero taken away from him, not even for one of those dumb scenes like in Beauty and the Beast. “What is it?”

“You still don’t believe in magic?”

“No,” Duo said firmly. 

“Good boy. What a bright little cousin you are.” She reached down to touch the hole in Heero’s shirt. 

Duo grudgingly moved his hand. Her fingers still glittered with whatever it was. Just like that the blood was gone. The shirt changed to a white casual button up, gray slacks, and yellow converse. 

“Some gifts can take a little while to appreciate. You’re going to have to find a new path forward.”

“What did you do?” Duo accused. 

“I healed him,” she said, her smile less fairytale and more tax collector. “Of everything that was wrong with him. Try to keep him out of a Gundam, if you don’t want to see me in the near future.”

The color drained from Duo’s face. That was a game changer. Duo could live with that. Heero had been dying. Now he wasn’t. Fair is fair. “Thank you.” 

She blinked, then smiled genuinely. “You’re not living up to your nature. Good boy.” 

Then if she was there or not, Duo didn’t care. Heero reached up and touched Duo’s cheek, sweaty bangs. “I love you. I feel like I’ve been waiting for so long to be able to say that.”

Duo’s jaw dropped. He barely had the mental power to process that Heero’s tone and accent had changed, more L1, less android. “Heero?”

“My name is Odin,” Heero said gently, his hand reaching up to cup the back of Duo’s head tenderly, asking permission with his movement as he drew Duo down into a soft touch of their lips. 

Then Wufei was screaming in Chinese. Duo had come to understand Wufei’s tones. Some tones were about something being wrong. Actually hurt was kind of deep and guttural, a wailing song. Pissy and irritated, was louder, screechier, a really irritated parrot fighting off the alligator of the world. 

Duo, having won the kiss from his prince charming, turned to look at Wufei, maybe more like a fat raccoon watching the parrot fight the alligator and not really caring who won, at least not right then. 

“What have you done,” Wufei growled in English, which always sounded like the alligator choking on the parrot. 

That always got Duo’s goat. “Why is it always my fault? Uh? You always think it’s me!”

Wufei looked away, rubbing behind his ear, like it was perfectly obvious that it was always Duo’s fault. 

to be continued...


End file.
